The Cedarburg School Board's decision to fire high school science teacher Robert Zellner led Zellner to seek getting his job back through the courts and other related legal cases.

Jan. 17, 2006: School Board votes 6-0 to fire Zellner.

Sept. 15, 2006: State arbitrator says Zellner should have been reprimanded, not fired, and orders him to be reinstated.

May 15, 2007: In a case brought by the media, state Supreme Court rules that 1,500 adult images found on Zellner's school computer after his firing are evidence of possible misconduct and therefore should be made available to the public.

April 16, 2008: Zellner files civil rights lawsuit in federal court, seeking $9 million from the School District. Case is pending.

July 23, 2008: State appeals court upholds Zellner's firing. Zellner has appealed to the state Supreme Court; high court has not said whether it will take the case. (Before the appeals court made its ruling, it asked the Supreme Court to take the case directly, but the high court refused.)

Nov. 26, 2008: State appeals court asks Supreme Court to decide whether a transcript from Zellner's arbitration hearing should be made public.

Source: Journal Sentinel reports

Cedarburg - In its nearly three-year effort to keep fired teacher Robert Zellner from returning to Cedarburg High School, the School District has spent roughly $267,000 on legal expenses - enough to pay the annual salary and benefits of four teachers - district records show.

The costs are expected to continue to mount.

Zellner's appeal of the School Board's decision to terminate him has been brought to the state Supreme Court twice.

And even if the high court decides - as it did the first time - not to hear the case, the district will still have to pay attorneys to fight a wrongful termination case Zellner filed in federal court.

The School Board fired Zellner, an 11-year science teacher and former teachers union president, in January 2006 after determining he had viewed pornography on his school computer for 67 seconds on a Sunday.

Zellner's initial appeal was successful. A state arbitrator decreed that Zellner should only have been reprimanded and ordered him reinstated.

The School Board refused to rehire Zellner, however, so he went to court.

The Journal Sentinel first reviewed the School District's legal bills related to Zellner in November 2006, 10 months after the firing. At that time, the district had accumulated $107,000 in legal expenses.

In the two years since then, the district estimates it has accumulated $160,000 more in legal bills connected to Zellner.

The $267,000 in Zellner-related legal bills is enough to pay the annual salary and benefits of four Cedarburg High teachers, Superintendent Daryl Herrick said.

The district is represented by the Milwaukee law firm of von Briesen & Roper. It has paid the firm up to $360 per hour in Zellner work, although most hourly rates are considerably less, according to district records.

Here's a sampling of the legal expenses:

• On June 11, 2008, the firm spent 11.2 hours researching related cases and drafting a legal brief, at a cost of $2,688.

The next day, with more work on briefs, reviewing documents and attending a School Board meeting, the tab was $3,852.

• On Oct. 30, 2006, editing a court motion. There also were phone conferences with the Ozaukee County district attorney, the U.S. attorney, an FBI agent and others about 1,500 adult images found on Zellner's computer after his firing. That work covered 5.5 hours and cost $1,320.

• More than four hours on 15 conference calls on July 23, 2008, cost the district $1,008.

The discussions occurred on the day the state appeals court upheld Zellner's firing.

The School District had a history of high legal expenses before the Zellner firing.

From 2001 through 2005, according to a Journal Sentinel analysis, Cedarburg spent $470,000 in legal fees, more than any other school district in Ozaukee County.

Zellner is represented by attorney Jina Jonen, who is a salaried employee of the state teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council.

"For WEAC, this case is not about Bob Zellner, but about defending arbitration as a final and binding process that is a less expensive and more efficient way to resolve labor disputes," Jonen said.

Some legal experts have said that if the state Supreme Court upholds Zellner's termination - or allows it to stand by deciding not to hear the case again - binding arbitration in Wisconsin could be in jeopardy.

Hundreds of thousands of employees are covered by binding arbitration, which is used as a less expensive alternative than courts for settling workplace disputes.

Legal experts say it is rare for a judge to overturn an arbitrator's ruling, as was done in the Zellner case.